Who will start at QB for Indiana football next week? Is QB rotation here to stay?
BLOOMINGTON — Indiana football coach Tom Allen amended his comments during fall camp on who would start at quarterback with asterisk after a 23-3 loss to Ohio State on Saturday night.
The Hoosiers started Brendan Sorsby, but rotated in fellow redshirt freshman Tayven Jackson by the end of the first quarter and that rotation was Allen's plan from the start.
"When I said we made our decision, our decision was to play both of them in the first two games," Allen said. "Sorsby started this week, Tayven starts next week."
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Allen hopes those two games will give the coaching staff enough film to "fairly" evaluate both quarterbacks and move to a full-time starting quarterback in Week 3 against Louisville.
"Here's the reality, you have spring ball, summer and fall camp and they never get hit and it's not full bore live football playing in the game," Allen said. "... It was back and forth (in the fall). They were so similar. We felt like the best thing to do was see them play."
He acknowledged the early returns for the offense weren't great.
Ohio State held Indiana out of the end zone and neither quarterback got into much of a rhythm. Sorsby opened the game with a pair of three-and-outs and looked unsure of himself on the option plays offensive coordinator Walt Bell called. Jackson looked equally shaky in the third quarter when he needed to step back and throw with Indiana facing a pair of third-and-longs.
"We didn't have a pitch count," Allen said, of the rotation.
Sorsby threw for 58 yards (8 of 16) and had six carries for minus two yards. Jackson threw for 24 yards (1 of 5 passing) and ran the ball three times for 11 yards.
Indiana had 153 total yards and the offensive production was nearly identical for each quarterback.
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The offense had 78 yards on Sorsby's 27 snaps and 86 yards on Jackson's 28 snaps. They each led a drive across midfield, but neither got the ball inside the 25-yard line. The Hoosiers lone points — a 42-yard field goal from Chris Freeman — came in the second quarter with Jackson in the game.
Allen is hoping for more clarity over the next two weeks.
"I couldn't even tell you how many snaps each one of them played," Allen said. "But we will watch the film and the bottom line, is it's about being able to move the football down the field and get us in the end zone. We weren't able to score with either one of them today, obviously, we got to get better...we got to continue to grow our offense."
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on Twitter @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Who will start at QB for Indiana next week? Is rotation here to stay?
